In the age of slavery African-American men and women were rarely given the opportunity to express anything that was on their minds. They were though to be unintelligent and inferior to the European descendant white Americans. It was believed that the "Old-Negro" could not think for him or herself, that black's couldn't develop hypothesis' on their own, that they couldn't figure things out for themselves or wonder why things were the way that they were. In the passage The New Negro by Alain Locke, the author explains how the "Old Negro" of the past evolves into the "New Negro" of present day.
             For hundreds of year the old Negro had suffered under the rule of the white Americans. He struggled to stay alive and had no vision of ever succeeding in life. The old Negro was forced to express himself; "The Negro himself has contributed his share to this through a sort of protective social mimicry forced upon him by the adverse circumstances of dependence," (3). The Old Negro was put in a position that he had to get out of in order for his people to thrive and carry on. His only way to do this was to step up amongst all the adversity and prove himself and his people worthy and equals to his white oppressors. His triumph would lead to the New Negro's of today, standing proud and tall. After the misfortune and hardship of slavery which stopped and was followed by segregation among many other things, the Negro didn't change into the New Negro but showed that he always had the characteristics of the New Negro he was just reluctant to show them.
             After segregation was forced to discontinue the African-American Negro's were still on a different level than that of their white countrymen. Even though they had come an extremely far way from the position they were in one hundred years prior they still had an extremely tough and long way to travel. It would take ...